Health

NY Times -    In 13 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Fiona Havers crafted guidance for contending with Zika virus, helped China respond to outbreaks of bird flu and guided safe burial practices for Ebola deaths in Liberia.

More recently, she was a senior adviser on vaccine policy, leading a team that produced data on hospitalizations related to Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus. To the select group of scientists, federal officials and advocates who study who should get immunizations and when, Dr. Havers is well known, an embodiment of the C.D.C.’s intensive data-gathering operations.

On Monday, Dr. Havers resigned, saying she could no longer continue while the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismantled the careful processes that help formulate vaccination standards in the United States. “If it isn’t stopped, and some of this isn’t reversed, like, immediately, a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases,” she said in an interview with The New York Times, the first since her resignation. 

Alzheimer's could start 20 years before memory fades, study warns

Portland Press Herald -   The cyber incidents that shut down computer and technology systems at several hospitals across Maine came at a time when such attacks on hospitals and health care providers are on the rise nationwide.

St. Mary’s Health System in Lewiston, owned by Covenant Health, reported a cyber incident in late May, while Central Maine Healthcare, which operates Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston as well as hospitals in Bridgton and Rumford, noticed unusual software activity on June 1 and shut down all technology systems.

Some patients have since been unable to access appointments, health data and medication refills, even while awaiting emergency surgeries or crucial medical imaging results.

From 2018-22, there was a 93% increase in large health care breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with a 278% increase in large breaches involving ransomware, according to Peter Cassell, a public affairs specialist at the department’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

Axios - Health insurers are starting to notify states that tariffs will drive up the premiums they plan to charge individual and small group market enrollees next year. The Trump administration's trade policy is adding another layer of uncertainty for health costs as Congress considers Medicaid cuts and is expected to sunset enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage.

The big picture: Health insurers calculate monthly premiums in advance of each year based on the expected price of goods and services and projected demand for them.

• Tariffs announced by President Trump are expected to drive up the cost of prescription drugs, medical devices and other medical products and services. Some of that difference ultimately would be passed down to enrollees.

A handful of health insurers administering individual and small group plans have already explicitly told state regulators that tariffs are forcing plans to raise enrollee premiums more than they otherwise would next year, KFF policy analyst Matt McGough wrote in an analysis published Monday...

Insurers "don't have any historical precedent or data to project what this is going to mean for their business and health costs," McGough said to Axios. "I think it really makes sense that they're trying to hedge their bets."  More

Health -   Over 5,000 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds have been recalled.The cereal, which was shipped to Sam’s Club stores in two states, may contain metal.The FDA has given the recall the second-highest risk level.